With Russia and President Putin leading the way, BRICS is feverishly working to offload all dependence on the U.S. dollar, which is more honestly called the Federal Reserve Note (FRN), issued by the private Federal Reserve central bank.
Trump is apparently a big supporter of FRNs, and anyone who tries to ditch it in favor of something else will receive "100% tariffs" on the export of their goods to the U.S., Trump threatened.
"We require a commitment from these Countries that they will neither create a new BRICS Currency nor back any other Currency to replace the mighty U.S. Dollar, or they will face 100% Tariffs and should expect to say goodbye to selling into the wonderful U.S. Economy," Trump wrote, capitalizing random words as usual.
"They can go find another 'sucker.' There is no chance that the BRICS will replace the U.S. Dollar in International Trade, and any country that tries should wave goodbye to America," Trump added.
(Related: Have you heard about the leftist women who are sterilizing themselves in protest of Trump's second term?)
Is it really smart to threaten BRICS?
Trump's words came just two days after the president-elect vowed to impose tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China immediately upon taking office. Trump plans to impose tariffs on these countries of anywhere from 60 to 100 percent, he says.
China, one of the original founding members of the BRICS bloc along with Brazil, Russia, India and South Africa, has already responded to Trump's threats with threats of its own. New BRICS members Egypt, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Ethiopia and Iran are also on board, as are Turkey, Azerbaijan and Malaysia, these three having submitted applications for joining BRICS.
Since World War II, the U.S. dollar has been the official currency of global trade – why do you think WWII was fought in the first place? More than 80 percent of international trade is denominated and settled in dollars, after all, which means an entirely new world order would have to emerge to change that.
Putin has repeatedly stated publicly that the United States is using dollar dominance as a political weapon. At this year's BRICS Summit, Putin showed off what appeared to be a new prototype banknote created by Russia that could become a substitute for the dollar.
Putin made it clear that Russia's goal is not necessarily to abandon the U.S. dollar and the international trade system known as SWIFT through which it operates. His goal is simply to build an alternative, especially since the West has gone sanctions-crazy since the start of the war in Ukraine.
"We are not refusing, not fighting the dollar, but if they don't let us work with it, what can we do?" Putin said. "We then have to look for other alternatives, which is happening."
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio da Silva in 2023 openly questioned why global trade should revolve around the dollar in the first place? What makes it so special and privileged of a currency that the entire world should be beholden to it?
At the time da Silva said this, a top Russian official was floating around the idea that a new BRICS currency is in the works that could potentially change everything as far as international trade is concerned.
For Trump to make these kinds of comments about 100 percent tariffs is a bit on the nose, and even conservatives are taking notice that this might not be the best way to proceed because of the harm a full-scale trade war might cause to the American people.
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